Every MMO suffers the horrors of gold spammers and EVE Online is no different. The RMT (Real Money Trading) industry is massive and EVE's developers CCP have waged a constant war against it in recent years. The PLEX initiative gave players a way to safely buy ISK for cash while at the same time helping players who couldn't afford their subscriptions pay with ISK. The result was a dramatic hit to the RMT market, who had to drop their prices to compete with a legitimate service replacing their own.

As part of Operation Unholy Rage in August of last year, EVE GMs also banned over 6200 accounts belonging to farmers known to be supplying the RMT industry. The effect on the market was instant, with the population in farmed mission systems like Ingunn disappearing overnight. Almost immediately, the farmers reacted with a spate of account hackings to claw back some ISK.

Account hijackings are a continuing problem for current and ex-EVE players. In a new devblog, GM Grimmi gives a run-down of some common sense security measures you can undertake to secure your account against theft:

Do not use the same usernames and passwords for different games
Change your passwords regularly
Use strong passwords
Do not share your login details with anyone
Don't accept files from sources you don't know
Regularly scan your systems for security threats with up-to-date anti-virus software

Many of the accounts hijacked are old ones that haven't been touched in years. A big source of these accounts which is not mentioned in the devblog is fake EVE newsletters mailed out to players. By mimicking the 5-day free reactivation offers that CCP occasionally run, the RMT folks con ex-players into providing their login details. If you receive an EVE newsletter and click a link on it, always check that you're entering your login details into a page on eveonline.com or eve-online.com. Anything else may be a fake website set up to hijack your account.